A huge number of Russian troops have reportedly abandoned Vladimir Putin as his attempted full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said more than 50,000 Russian servicemembers are reportedly listed as having “abandoned their units” and are absent without leave (AWOL) between February 2022 and mid-December 2024.
The ISW wrote: “A Ukrainian OSINT community reported that Ukrainian hackers gained access to an internal Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) presentation showing the number of criminal cases that Russian authorities had initiated against Russian servicemembers listed as AWOL as of December 15, 2024. The OSINT community noted that the figures in the presentation do include instances when Russian commanders have listed servicemembers who went missing during assaults as AWOL.”
The respected think tank added: “Ukraine-based open-source intelligence organization Frontelligence Insight used the presentation data to calculate that there were the largest number of AWOL cases – 22,577 – in the Southern Military District [SMD].
“There were 13,769 AWOL cases in the Central Military District; 7,178 cases in the Moscow Military District; 3,052 cases in the Leningrad Military District; and 3,378 cases in the Eastern Military District – a total of 50,554 documented AWOL cases.
“A leaked document detailing the AWOL personnel in the SMD reportedly indicated that personnel from the 51st Combined Arms Army [CAA] (formerly 1st Donetsk People’s Republic Army Corps [DNR AC]) and 3rd CAA (formerly 2nd Luhansk People’s Republic [LNR] AC) made up 58.8 percent of the SMD’s AWOL cases, with most of the SMD’s AWOL cases occurring between 2023 and 2024 and relatively few in 2022.”
This comes as the Ukrainian military claims over 882,000 Russian soldiers have been either killed or injured over the past three years of war.
Experts also reported that Putin stated during a visit to the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation’s Moscow branch on March 6 that Russia does not intend to “give in to anyone” or make any compromises in future peace negotiations.
He also is thought to have alluded to the Russian Revolution, noted that his country’s society collapsed during World War 1, and urged citizens to maintain support and unity as the war continues.
Moreover, the President stated that Russia “will not give up” its “own” territory in future peace negotiations. The ISW notes that this was “likely referring to illegally annexed territory in occupied Ukraine”.
